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Blanco Café is known for its Tex-Mex comfort food.
In January, the longtime mini-chain will begin serving from a 4,700 square-foot restaurant inside the historic Dalkowitz Dry Goods Building, 201 W. Commerce St., according to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.
Construction on the new eatery is slated to begin in October, the filing notes. The $700,000 project will consolidate two ground-floor tenant spaces of the building at the intersection of Commerce and Flores streets.
Blanco Café owner Albert San Miguel confirmed plans for the new location with the Current but declined further comment.
The new downtown location will replace a shuttered Blanco Café that served up Tex-Mex comfort food for 40 years at The Travis Building near Travis Park. That building sold last year, and the restaurant was unable to reach a lease agreement with the new owner, Centro San Antonio Economic Development Director Sarah Esserlieu Khalil said in an emailed statement.
“As a legacy business, we wanted to find a way to keep them downtown,” Khalil said. "We connected with our stakeholders, hopeful we could help them find a new downtown location."
San Antonio-based developer Weston Urban answered Centro's call and posited the Dry Goods Building as an option, according to Khalil.
Built in 1915 and designed by Leo M.J. Dielmann, the Dry Goods Building was created in the Art Deco style for brothers Samuel and Solomon Dalkowitz, according to a 2021 building profile by nonprofit tech-industry advocate Tech Bloc. The structure features ground-floor retail spaces, a lobby for a prospective second-floor office tenant and salvaged hardwood floors.
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